Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/879

Bcazley : The Daicn of Modern Geography 869 The Dazcii of Modern Geography. 'oIume III. A History of Ex- ploration and Geographical Science from the Middle of the Thir- teenth Century to the Early Years of the Fifteenth Century (c. A.D. 1206-1420). By C. Raymond Beazley,, M.A., F.R.G.S. (Oxford : The Clarendon Press. 1906. Pp. xvi, 638.) In this third vokime Mr. Beazley brings to a conclusion his consid- eration of the " Dawn of Modern Geography ". The period under re- view in this truly excellent work is a long one, and the better title for it seems to be his second one, in which he speaks of the subject matter treated as a " History of Mediaeval Exploration and Geograph- ical Science ". This has the advantage of clearness, and this has been his theme. In the first volume the author presented an account of geographical movement in Christendom between the years 300 and 900 A. D., calling attention in particular to the early pilgrim travellers and to their share in the work of exploration, to the missionary and commercial enter- prises of those centuries and to the geographical theorists, who as a rule were theologians. In his second volume the period covered is from the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth century, a period marked in particular by the movements of the Xorthmen and the Crusaders. The part taken in the expansion of geographical knowledge by the pilgrim, the commercial, and the missionary travellers received detailed consideration, as did geographical theory and description such as those centuries afforded. In the third volume he carries us to the opening of the fifteenth century. Quite appropriately he refers to the volume " as an attempt to open up comparatively fresh fields of historical and geographical inquiry ". The same general plan is followed throughout the series. The crusading movement had failed of its purpose, but travellers continued in this new period to journey to the East, penetrating to cen- tral Asia and beyond. To gain strength for a pious life, as the author shows, did not now so frequently impel as did an eagerness for com- mercial profit. During this third period interest does not alone centre in overland exploration. In one of his best chapters the beginnings of maritime enterprises are discussed. The volume opens with a somewhat lengthy chapter on the great Asiatic travellers, chief among whom was Marco Polo. In near one hundred and fifty pages we have as good and as readable a resume of Marco Polo's book as may be found. If no particularly original con- tribution is offered in this part of the work there is at least set forth in a clear manner the significance of that great land-journey, perhaps the most important ever made in far-reaching influence. Those who may be counted as among the most significant of the followers of the Polos were the friars who undertook to plant Latin missions in the far east, among whom John of Monte Corvino stands as a pioneer. But in this religious intercourse the author notes that there